For a long time, many say for far too long, the American courts didn’t look like America: too white, too male, too old. With that statement, Joe Biden, known to be an old white man himself, six weeks ago nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court, a 51-year-old black woman. Now the Senate has decided that it wants to bring the composition of the US Supreme Court closer to social reality. He confirmed Brown Jackson’s appointment Thursday by a vote of 53 to 47.
It is a historic step for the country. Old white men – or, more precisely: “White Anglo-Saxon Protestants”, i.e. Protestants of European descent, WASP for short – have always made up the majority of judges since the Supreme Court was founded in 1789. Only 55 years ago, Thurgood Marshall was the first non-white person to gain access to the exclusive club. It’s only 41 years since Sandra Day O’Connor was named the first woman.
The white male majority will be over when Brown Jackson is expected to start her new job at the Washington court in October. She succeeds Stephen Breyer, who is retiring at 83 and is also a WASP. With his departure, four white men remain on the board, two appointed by George W. Bush and two by Donald Trump. The fifth man in the league, the African American Clarence Thomas, is also a Republican. The judges give the most diverse picture: Amy Coney Barrett is white, Elena Kagan describes her origins as Russian-Jewish, the Latina Sonia Sotomayor is the first non-white woman on the court – and with Ketanji Brown Jackson, African Americans are now also present.
However, the Supreme Court remains a fairly homogenous group. For example, Americans of Asian descent, who make up around six percent of the population, have never been represented. The academic career of the judges also seems monotonous: With the exception of Amy Coney Barrett, everyone studied at either Harvard or Yale, two elite universities that have long been symbols of the WASP network. Brown Jackson was also partially held that: She is a Harvard graduate and had worked for the judge whose seat she now inherits; most recently, she was an appellate judge in a federal court.
Brown Jackson’s appointment does not change the balance of power in the court
The joy of the historic appointment on the left is also clouded by the fact that the increasing diversity in the political majority will not change anything for the time being. Since Donald Trump appointed the arch-conservative Coney Barrett to the body shortly before his vote to replace the liberal veteran Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the highest court in the USA has been firmly in the hands of the conservatives. There are some indications that they will use this position of power when fundamental decisions are to be made in the near future: Among other things, the right to abortion, restrictions on free gun ownership and the promotion of minorities at universities are at stake – all hot topics of the “Culture War”, the Republicans and lead Democrats against each other.
Brown Jackson has felt this clearly in recent weeks. For three days, the Senate Judiciary Committee probed her, for three days Republicans tried to lure her into a trap. She had to justify sentences against pedophiles that Republicans felt were too lenient; she was asked to define the word “woman”; she should take a stand on racism and how she deals with it.
For a long time, the Republicans kept the tension high by refusing any support for Ketanji Brown Jackson. Eventually, three moderate Republicans voted for her. For Joe Biden, this is a resounding and much-needed achievement. The White House and the leadership of the Democrats have repeatedly torpedoed their own concerns with mistakes in the past few months. With Jackson Brown’s appointment, they have now completed a delicate procedure within around six weeks.
During the election campaign, Biden had promised to send an African American woman into the race; he has now complied with this, first with a non-partisan majority. This is all the more important because it is one of the few promises made to the African-American grassroots that Biden has followed up with action. Biden did not get through other of her concerns, such as electoral law reform; he was thus accused of doing too little for the interests of Afro-Americans. In the midterm elections this year, however, Biden’s party is dependent on blacks not being disappointed and not staying away from the polls.